The Balonne Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) met this morning to receive an update on the Dirranbandi Fire Evacuation from emergency services, Ergon and other parties.
Dirranbandi was evacuated last night due to two fires burning to the north-east and south-east of the town yesterday afternoon, prevailing overnight weather conditions, a power outage due to the fire and an impending telecommunications outage.
“A community meeting will be held at midday today in the St George Cultural Centre and the Dirranbandi Civic Centre to update the community on this incident,” said LDMG Chair, Balonne Shire Council Mayor, Samantha O’Toole.
“Overnight, we had 76 people attend the evacuation centre at St George Cultural Centre, with nearly all transferred to local accommodation.
“Being a small community, we anticipate many more people stayed with family and friends and other locations overnight.”
Residents in the Dirranbandi Hospital were evacuated to St George. Mayor O’Toole said it was anticipated that the evacuation centre at the St George Cultural Centre will remain in place and open tonight.
There is an active fire to the north-east of Dirranbandi and water bombers are in route to the location, she confirmed.
“Additional Queensland Fire Department resources are coming in from Toowoomba today to assist with this fire situation. There are no losses to homes due to fire at this stage.”
“Ergon has advised that they are in the process of fixing the fallen power lines and restoring
power to Dirranbandi and Hebel after power poles were taken out by the fire last night and
they are anticipating that power will be back online by this evening.
“Further updates will provided throughout the course of the day. Telecommunications are currently out due to the power outage, which will be restored following the power being switched back on, however Telstra is currently acting to install a generator as soon as possible as an interim measure,” the Mayor said.
Castlereagh Highway will also remain closed until the downed power lines near the roads are fixed and passage through the area is safe.
The only safe access to Dirranbandi is via Bollon-Dirranbandi Road at this time.
Education Department has closed both the Dirranbandi and Hebel State Schools and have been making contact with parents of the local school students as best they can, said Mayor O’Toole.
“We are expecting another 40-degree day of heat today, so we are urging people to be patient during this incident, as everyone if moving as quickly as possible to resolve this situation.”
“Council is currently coordinating a generator for the Dirranbandi Civic Centre so that we can turn on the air conditioning to provide locals with a place of respite from the heat,” she said.
